St. Martin Pomary 95/8-12

Introduction

These properties lay on the E. side of Ironmonger Lane between Catte Street (now Gresham Street) on the N., the church or cemetery of St. Martin Pomary on the S., and properties in St. Olave parish on the E. The properties have been numbered in accordance with the houses rebuilt after the Great Fire. During the later Middle Ages the site of 8-12 was part of a larger property, known as the Prince's Wardrobe, which extended as far as Old Jewry on the E. and so lay partly in St. Olave parish. A useful account of the history of the Prince's Wardrobe and of number 11 Ironmonger Lane, which occupies the site of 95/11-12, was published in 1951. (fn. 1) It has been possible to add to this account, but further work on records concerning properties in St. Olave parish would undoubtedly add to our knowledge of the development of the area during the 16th and 17th centuries.

In 1858 the property was represented by no. 17 Gresham Street and nos. 10-14 Ironmonger Lane.

Thirteenth to sixteenth century

It has been suggested that in the first half of the 12th century a part of this property was the land of Lusbert in the vicus Judeorum (Old Jewry?) from which St. Paul's Cathedral had a rent of 10s. Lusbert's land, however, appears to have been on the E. side of the street, since it was said to measure 32 ft. (9.75 m.) wide in front on the W. side. On the other hand, the street mentioned could have been Ironmonger Lane rather than Old Jewry. Further dimensions for the land are given, which suggest that it was close to the church of St. Olave. These were: 95 ft. (28.96 m.) in length towards St. Olave; 65 ft. (19.81 m.) in length again towards St. Olave; 13 ft. (3.96 m.) in front; 73 ft. (22.25 m.) in front; 41 ft. (12.5 m.) in depth. These dimensions are not easy to understand and may concern several separate pieces of land which belonged to Lusbert. It is possible that there were 3 pieces of land fronting onto Old Jewry N. of the church of St. Olave; if so, the sum of the 3 frontages given (118 ft.; 35.97 m.) was very close to the distance between the boundary of the land belonging to St. Olave's church and the rear of the house on the W. corner of Catte Street and Old Jewry during the late 17th century. But this could be coincidence. (fn. 2)

The first certain reference to the property is in an inquisition of 1275 concerning the holdings of Hagin son of Master Moses, a notable Jew of London and archpresbyter of the English Jews. The property may previously have belonged to Hagin's father and may therefore have been the property in Ironmonger Lane where in 1246 Moses the Jew was said to have erected a pentice which encroached on the highway. Hugh the fishmonger was also said to have erected a pentice there. The return of 1246 then lists a number of Jews who had erected pentices in Ironmonger Lane, possibly all on the site of 8-12; they were Joce of Canterbury, Isaac of Paris, Jew, James of Warwick, Beliascez the Jewess, Elias the Jew, and Joce of Oxford, Jew. The capital messuage of Hagin son of Master Moses was a substantial one and extended from Colechurchstrete (now Old Jewry) on the E. to Ironmonger Lane on the W. It was bounded on the S. by the murum Londonie (rectius lapideum?) versus cimiterium sancti Martini de Ismongerelane and on the N. by the houses of Cok son of Hagin which adjoined Cattestrate (now Gresham Street). In 1275 a jury was asked whether Hagin owned the houses then held by his son Cok, since Hagin had free access through them by a postern leading from his capital messuage. The jury reported that Hagin had no claim to his son's messuages since Cok had purchased them in parcels from Deudone son of Isaac and James le Clerk. Hagin, however, did have access to the synagogue (scolas) which was within Cok's houses, but purely at Cok's discretion. Cok's houses presumably occupied the sites of 8 and 9 and the properties in St. Olave parish which lay to the E. (fn. 3)

Hagin died in 1280 and his tenements appear to have come into the possession of Queen Eleanor, to whom the king had already granted the debts due to Hagin. The queen subsequently granted the houses in London which had once belonged to Hagin son of Master Moses to Otto de Grandison for life. In July 1290 coffers and other items from Queen Eleanor's wardrobe were carried from Westminster to the domos que fuerunt domini Othonis de Grandisono - perhaps this property. After Queen Eleanor's death in November 1290 Otto surrendered Hagin's former properties to the king, who in 1296 granted them to Otto and his heirs for ever. (fn. 4) Otto later granted his houses in Ironmonger Lane in the parish of St. Martin to Aymer de Valence, who, as Lord of Montignac granted them back to Otto and his heirs and assigns, reserving only to Aymer's barber Richard the house which Aymer had granted him for life. The latter grant was probably made in 1302 and Aymer's heirs were bound to the warranty of any dower which his widow, Beatrice, might recover in the property. (fn. 5) Otto subsequently granted the houses in St. Martin parish in Ironmonger Lane which had belonged to Hagin the Jew to Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln, and, probably in 1304, appointed John Vane, citizen and merchant of Lucca and a member of the society of the Bardi, as his attorney to deliver seisin to the earl and to receive a payment of £233. 6s. 8d. for the houses. (fn. 6) The earl, however, already held the property in 1302-3, when Richard de Mundene, barber, quitclaimed to him his right in a house divided into 2 shops within the precinct of the earl's manor (manerium) in Ironmonger Lane. The manor had once belonged to Otto de Grandison and Richard had had the shops for the term of his life by the grant of Aymer de Valence. (fn. 7)

The earl of Lincoln's aristocratic and royal successors as owners of the property used it as a wardrobe for the storage of their goods and as a centre for household administration, and it is possible that the earl and his immediate predecessors did the same. When in London de Lacy normally resided at his manor of Holborn, where he died in 1311, but a dwelling and storehouse within the city walls and not far from both Cheapside and Guildhall may have been regarded as a particularly useful centre for business as well as offering additional security. The earl's wardrobe is mentioned in the accounts of 1304-5 for his manor of Holborn and for his household, and so may have been the establishment between Ironmonger Lane and Old Jewry. In this year spices were purchased for the wardrobe and £4. 16s. rent was due from 8 shops belonging to it, although 16s. was in default since 3 cottages were in decay; in addition Alexander Sprot paid 4s. rent for a plot of land. (fn. 8) The 8 shops presumably occupied the street frontage.

The property was later in the possession of Piers Gaveston, for in 1321 it was described as the former wardrobe of the earl of Cornwall. Gaveston's properties escheated to the Crown at his execution in 1312. His widow Margaret appears then to have been allowed a life interest in this property. She married Hugh de Audley, on whose fall from favour in 1321 the property again came into the king's possession. In that year the king granted the houses in Ironmonger Lane, formerly the earl of Cornwall's wardrobe, to his yeoman, John Griffoun, at pleasure. Margaret and her husband Hugh de Audley (later earl of Gloucester) then regained possession by a grant from King Edward II for the term of Margaret's life. When the property reverted to the Crown on Margaret's death in 1342 it was apparently represented by or included among the tenement, garden, and 8 shops which she held in the parishes of St. Martin, St. Olave, and St. Lawrence in the Jewry. The 8 shops, valued at £5 a year less £1 spent on repairs, could have been identical with the 8 shops which had belonged to the earl of Lincoln in 1304-5. No part of the block between Ironmonger Lane and Old Jewry is later known to have been in the parish of St. Lawrence. This may mean that Margaret's properties included a detached holding in St. Lawrence parish, but it is equally possibly that all the properties lay within that block, of which a part may in 1342 have been thought to be in the parish of St. Lawrence. The tenement and garden, which probably represented the greater part of Gaveston's former property, were in 1342 said to be ruinous and had not been let or lived in for 40 years. Later that year King Edward III granted the messuage in Ironmonger Lane, now described as the wardrobe of the earl of Cornwall, to his son Edward duke of Cornwall and earl of Chester. (fn. 9)

The property now came to be known as the Prince's Wardrobe and was used by the Black Prince as an administrative centre. Between 1359 and 1362 the prince is known to have been there himself on several occasions, when he issued letters and received homage and fealty. On several occasions debts were to be repaid there and in 1359 arrows and bowstrings were to be delivered there for the prince's use. Before the derelict property could be used, however, a good deal of building had to be undertaken. The houses were repaired in 1346, and a new chamber near the prince's chamber was made on the prince's spoken order in 1355. £66. 3s. 4d. were spent on making a new chapel, which had been completed by December 1357. £2. 12s. 4d. were spent on roofing a great bridge and £11. 17s. 2d. on making a new porch for the hall and palings next to it in 1359. The impression created is that the wardrobe had been made into a well-appointed residence which was quite frequently used by the Black Prince when he was in London. (fn. 10)

The Black Prince's Wardrobe probably extended from the Ironmonger Lane frontage later occupied by 10-12 as far as Old Jewry on the E. In 1359 the prince granted the rector and parishioners of the church of St. Olave Old Jewry a small plot of land measuring 2 3/4 ells (8 ft. 3 in.; 2.51 m.) by 5 1/2 ells (16 ft. 6 in.; 5.03 m.) which was probably intended for the enlargement of the church or its cemetery. This land was bounded by the church on the S., the prince's inn or wardrobe on the N., the prince's garden on the W., and the highway (Old Jewry) on the E. (fn. 11)

On the Black Prince's death in 1376, the inn of the wardrobe (hospicium garderobe) in Old Jewry, pertaining to the duchy of Cornwall and said to be worth £10 a year, was granted as dower to his widow Joan. This and subsequent references to the property as lying in Old Jewry suggests that its principal gate now opened into Old Jewry rather than Ironmonger Lane as it would appear to have done in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. On Joan's death in 1385 the property reverted to the Crown, and Richard II immediately granted la Princis Warderobe for life to Queen Anne, who died in 1394. (fn. 12)

During the 15th and early 16th centuries the Crown let the Prince's Wardrobe, which was sometimes known as 'the palace of the principality in Old Jewry', to a succession of royal servants who also received an income from the revenues of the duchy of Cornwall. Up to the 1460s these servants were responsible for the custody of the king's tapestries, for which the Prince's Wardrobe probably served as one of the principal repositories, although it was subordinate to the king's Great Wardrobe in the parish of St. Andrew Castle Baynard. The Prince's Wardrobe thus continued to be used by the Crown in much the same way as by its earlier aristocratic owners, and during the 15th century seems to have been a large and well-maintained establishment. It contained a lodging for its porter, who was the keeper of the tapestries, and a storehouse for the tapestries themselves. In addition there were rooms suggesting a more elaborate or ceremonial use, although by whom is not known. These included a great hall, a chapel, a tower, a great kitchen, several chambers, a bath-house, and a garden. This establishment appears to have opened on to Old Jewry and had a stone wall next to Ironmonger Lane.

In 1418 Henry VI granted to John Stout, who was the keeper of his arras and tapestry, the office of the porter of the palace of the principality in Old Jewry. The grant was confirmed in 1423, and in 1438, Stout having surrendered the earlier grant, the same office was granted in survivorship to Stout and Robert Savage, who were to receive 2d. a day out of the revenues of the duchy of Cornwall. Savage's widow Florence was granted the office and the income for life in 1462 and again in 1463. Savage's office appears to have been performed by a deputy, who in the latter part of Henry VI's reign was William Jenkyns, described in a Wardrobe account as keeper of the king's arras and tapestry in the Prince's Wardrobe. (fn. 13)

Routine repairs were paid for out of the revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall, but in 1434 extensive work, costing £90. 12s. 7d., was carried out under the direction of the keeper of the Great Wardrobe. The sheriffs of London arrested labourers, tilers, and others to carry out the work, which appears to have concerned most of the domestic buildings within the palace or inn (palacium, hospicium) of the principality of Cornwall apart from the great hall. Much of the work concerned the storehouse where the king's tapestries were kept (domus stauri de arras, or domus stauri; there is one reference to the camera stauri de arras). An agreement was made with tilers for removing old tiles and laths from the chambers and houses, apart from the hall, and for replacing them with new. Much of the carpentry work and many of the iron fittings purchased concerned the repair and strengthening of roof structures. An agreement was made with a carpenter to carry out repairs at the W. end of the great storehouse, in the great kitchen, in the great chambers and other houses and chambers apart from the hall and also to repair and make the battlements and the supercelium of the tower. This supercelium (the word seems usually to denote a cloth or other covering for a saddle) could have been a roof of saddle-like appearance over the tower but may have been simply the heavy timber work which supported the floors and a flat roof in the tower. Agreements were made with masons for mending and underpinning walls and chimneys, for cutting Maidstone and Reigate stone for the corner of the inn next to Ironmonger Lane and for other jambs, for making 2 ovens (fornaces) in the great kitchen, and for making a chimney in the chamber next to the bath-house (le stewe) and repairing 4 other chimneys. The great kitchen was a substantial structure, probably next to the hall. It was at least in part a timber-framed building and its roof included one beam 42 ft. long and another 30 ft. long. A covered stair connected the kitchen and the great chamber, which was probably distinct from the great chamber in the tower. Work was carried out on several chambers, among them a chamber at the W. end of the storehouse by Ironmonger Lane. Four new timber-framed pentices were made, 2 of them at the W. end of the storehouse. There was a chamber next to the bath-house, which was itself a timber building, and there was a wall between the bath-house and the garden. The most elaborate of the structures repaired was the tower. It had an external stair with a porch over it and a 'middle stair' with winding steps of timber. The supercelium of the tower was supplied with corbel tables and crests of timber and the supercilium of the great chamber there was bound with an iron dog. Boards were used to enclose the rails on the tower battlements. The upper chamber in the tower was supplied with wainscot and a new bay window of timber was made there and fitted with hinges, hooks, and bolts, all of tinned iron. Carpentry repairs were also carried out at the porter's house. The stone from Maidstone was used for making the corner of the wall in Ironmonger Lane and the Reigate stone was used with brick in the chimneys. Timber and hurdles were used for scaffolding, and candles illuminated the work at night. Two engines were hired for lifting (retractio) heavy timbers, and 81 carts of rubbish were carried from the site to places outside the city. (fn. 14)

Other parts of the establishment were mentioned in 1469-70, when repairs costing £3. 11s. 8 1/2d. were undertaken at 'the Prynce is warderobe yn the old jury'. Most of this work concerned the chapel chamber which was repaired with Eastland board, paved with 200 floor tiles, and whitewashed. A chimney was made there using 1000 bricks. A tiler mended the roof over this chamber, and tiles were used for repairing the great chamber, the porter's house (presumably where the keeper of the Prince's wardrobe or his deputy lived) and the wardrobe itself. Glass windows were repaired in the chapel, the great chamber, the chamber by the chapel (probably identical with the chapel chamber). The tiles used in the chapel chamber would probably have been about 8 in. square, in which case an area of no more than 130 square feet (12.08 m.) can have been paved. (fn. 15)

The wardrobe cannot have occupied the whole of the Old Jewry frontage between St. Olave's church and Catte Street, for in 1484 there is a reference to two newly-erected tenements in private ownership in Old Jewry and bounded by the Prynce Wardrobe on the S. (fn. 16) These tenements may have occupied the site of what is now number 25 Old Jewry.

In March 1485 John Kendale, the king's secretary, was granted the custody of the wardrobe and the income of 2d. a day from 1483 onwards at the king's pleasure. Kendale's tenure ceased on the death of Richard III and in December 1485 the custody of the wardrobe with the accustomed wages out of the issues of the county of Surrey was granted for life to the new king's physician, Benedict Frutze. The wardrobe reverted to the Crown and in 1488 was granted for life with the income from the duchy of Cornwall to Roger Coton, a knight of the royal household. At this time the wardrobe was in great decay and 20 marks were to be spent on it to make it a fit place for keeping the goods of the queen and the prince of Wales. The use of the property as a store for the queen's apparel goes back at least to 1483, when men were paid for the work they did there for the queen in preparation for the coronation. Giles Duwes, the king's servant, was appointed keeper of the Prince's Wardrobe during the king's pleasure in 1510 and was confirmed in the position in 1515. Duwes was apparently succeeded by William Crofton of London and his wife Blanche, to whom in 1544 the custody of the wardrobe was granted in survivorship and on the terms that Duwes had held it. (fn. 17)

The Prince's Wardrobe was still being used for storage of the king's goods purchased in London in 1527, when paints, glue, and other raw materials of the painter's, smith's, and tailor's crafts were taken from there to Greenwich for use in staging a revel. The cooper of the Prince's Wardrobe from whom ashen hoops were purchased for the revels at this time presumably made and maintained the barrels in which those supplies were stored. During the 15th and early 16th centuries the wardrobe was also regularly used as a place of assembly by the members of the Mercers' Company, which had its headquarters in the nearby church of St. Thomas of Acre but which before 1522 (cf. 105/18) seems to have had little room in the church for large meetings. Thus between 1419 and 1436 the annual election of wardens alternated between the Prince's Wardrobe and the private house of one of the outgoing wardens, and in 1477 and 1509 the members of the company who were to carry out its responsibility for watch in the city were to assemble at the wardrobe. (fn. 18) Rooms at the wardrobe were probably hired out to other private users from time to time, although the interest of the Mercers' Company was a special one on account of its concern with the trade in expensive textiles as well as its position as a close neighbour.

Sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

By now the wardrobe was probably in a ruinous state, and in 1549 the Crown granted it to Anthony Cope, knight, in return for his service to Henry VIII and a payment of £60. The Prince's Wardrobe was now described as a great messuage with houses, buildings, stone walls, curtilages, yards, and gardens in the parish of St. Olave, and included both buildings which had lately fallen into ruins and the materials from them. Cope was to hold in free burgage and the whole property was valued at £6 13s. 4d. a year. Cope did not undertake repairs, and in 1552 the city authorities took the extreme measure of setting men to pull down the stone wall at the Prince's Wardrobe which was 'so noysome and daungerows' for both inhabitants and passers by. The wardrobe passed by inheritance to Cope's son, Edward Cope, esquire, who with his wife Elizabeth in April 1553 sold the great messuage with its buildings, stone walls, orchards, and vacant sites (vacua funda) to Henry Awsten, citizen and haberdasher, for £300 and quitclaimed in the property. At the time of this sale a suit concerning the property, which was said to be in Coleman Street ward, had already been commenced in Husting against Awsten by John Broxolme, gentleman, and Roland Browne, haberdasher, who in May recovered possession. Broxholme and Browne were probably acting as agents for Awsten or for the next owners, Hugh Pope, citizen and haberdasher, and his wife Katharine, to whom in July 1554 Awsten granted the property. As a result of this grant the Prince's Wardrobe came to be entailed on the legitimate heirs of Pope and Katharine, with successive remainders to their right heirs and to Pope's right heirs. In June 1555 Awsten and his wife Leticia quitclaimed to Pope and Katharine. (fn. 19)

Pope probably kept a tavern in the property under a licence granted to him and others in February 1555, but valid from November 1553. He was certainly responsible for some rebuilding, and in 1556 a panel was appointed to inquire whether the new houses at the Prince's Wardrobe were in the ward of Cheap or that of Coleman Street. Pope probably rebuilt and lived in the western part of the property, for at his death in 1562-3 he was a parishioner of St. Martin Pomary and wished to be buried in that church. His widow Katharine married Henry Butler, esquire, of London and in 1563 with her new husband and with the intent of ensuring an income for the maintenance of Hugh Pope's children, Frances and Hugh, until they came of age, sold the wines which had lately belonged to Hugh and which were stored in the cellar of their great messuage in Ironmonger Lane and in 2 other cellars in the parishes of St. James Garlickhithe and All Hallows the Great to Robert Good, Thomas Prows, and Anthony Gregorye, citizens and haberdashers. So long as Butler and Katharine held the great messuage, where they appear to have dwelled, the purchasers of the wines were to enjoy the use of the great vault beneath the messuage, of a warehouse with a gallery at the E. end of the yard of the messuage and other rooms lying over the warehouse and gallery together with access through the great door opening into Ironmonger Lane, through the yard leading to the warehouse and gallery and through the door opening out of the great vault into the yard. (fn. 20) This arrangement of a galleried warehouse over a great cellar was similar to that which existed at another substantial house in Ironmonger Lane (see 95/13A).

Hugh Pope's son, Hugh Pope, gentleman, inherited the property in both Ironmonger Lane and Old Jewry, and in 1578 William Maddocks, merchant tailor, and Edward Borlace, mercer, recovered possession against him of 4 messuages, 4 curtilages and a garden in St. Martin Pomary parish in Cheap Ward (95/8-12) and 2 messuages and 2 curtilages in the parish of St. Olave Jewry in Coleman Street Ward (presumably the eastern part of the site of the Prince's Wardrobe). (fn. 21) At some subsequent date the eastern and western parts of the site came into separate ownership, and from now on this account deals only with that part of it which lay in St. Martin Pomary parish.

By 1638, according to the tithe assessment of that year, the 4 messuages of 1578 appear to have been occupied by 8 households. The return of 1637 concerning divided houses in this parish lists one division and one multiple occupancy, both of which were within the area covered by 8-12 and probably within the site later identifiable as 11-12, which seems to have represented the great messuage once occupied by Hugh Pope. Five of the 11 households named in 1637 are listed in 1638 and of the others, 5 consisted of single women. Structurally, however, there seem only to have been 5 houses recognizable from the street, of which 2 (8, 9) occupied the Cateaton Street (now Gresham Street) frontage and the remainder were in Ironmonger Lane. On the eve of the Great Fire these 5 messuages, apparently rebuilt as 5 messuages after the Fire, belonged to Anne Cooke, widow, who had been in possession of the property since 1654 or earlier. The whole property, 8-12, appears to be represented by 10 houses or households in the Hearth Tax assessment of 1666. On Anne Cooke's death in 1669-70 the 5 newly-built messuages and half an acre of land in St. Martin Pomary parish, which together represented 8-12, came into the possession of her grandson, John Hough, merchant. So far as possible the remainder of this account is arranged under headings corresponding to the properties identifiable after the Fire. (fn. 22)

8

In 1638 this was occupied by Mr. Parkhurst and was valued at £24 a year. In 1654 it was a messuage called the Red Lyon which Anne Cooke leased to Robert Shipman for a term of 21 years, at £20 rent, and for a fine of £140. Shipman assigned the lease to William Sturdy, who charged it with an annuity of £40 payable to John Jefferies. On Sturdy's death the assignment passed to Thomas Prowse, who was tenant or occupant at the time of the Great Fire, although Anne Cooke apparently did not accept him as such. Prowse occupied a house of 3 hearths in this parish in 1662-3, but in the 1666 Hearth Tax assessment the property is probably represented by a house of 7 hearths occupied by Anne Holland. After the Fire no proposals were made for rebuilding and the Fire Court ordered Prowse, who had gone to Ireland, to pay the arrears of rent due to the time of the Fire to Robert Shipman's widow Dorothy, who was herself to pay the rent due for the same period to Mrs. Cooke and was to surrender the lease of 1654 so that the site might be disposed of for building. (fn. 23)

9

In 1638 this corner messuage valued at £22 a year, was occupied by Mr. Smithson, who was probably identical with the Hugh Smithson (later created a baronet) who was later said to have occupied it. William Skynner, haberdasher of hats and tenant of Anne Cooke, occupied the messuage, which had 5 hearths, in 1662-3 and 1666. He was presumably the Mr. Skinner for whom a foundation was surveyed in 1667. (fn. 24)

10

In 1638 this house was occupied by Mr. Slany and valued at £22 a year. It was probably the messuage which in 1663 Anne Cooke leased to Richard Payne for a term of 15 years at a peppercorn rent and in consideration of the surrender of a former lease with about 14 years to come. Payne made an under lease to Richard Browne, silkman, and afterwards assigned his interest to John Warter, gentleman. Browne was tenant or occupant of 10 at the time of the Fire, and occupied a house with 3 hearths. No proposals were made to rebuild after the Fire and it was found that the messuage had stood over a vault 50 feet long and standing 8 feet above street level, which would have to be pulled down so that any new building could conform to the regulations. This vault was probably a surviving part of the medieval structure of the Prince's Wardrobe but its position is not certain. It was too long to have been accommodated on an E./W. alignment within the property identifiable as 10 in the post-Fire foundation surveys, but it may have extended along that part of the Ironmonger Lane frontage occupied by 10 and 11. It could have occupied that part of the Ironmonger Lane frontage identified here as 12, but it is unlikely to have been within the rear part of 11 which seems certainly to have been held by different tenants. Warter was prepared to rebuild, at a cost which he estimated at £300 or more, but had lent £100 on the security of the lease and wanted good terms from Mrs. Cooke. He also wanted a part of a cellar under a kitchen belonging to her, for which she asked an additional £5 rent. In April 1668 the parties agreed that Warter should rebuild, that his term should be made up to 51 years at £12 rent, and that he should have a term of 51 years in the cellar at £4 rent. No foundation is known to have been surveyed for Warter, but the property was perhaps roughly identical with that said in 1667 to belong to Mr. Holt (rectius Hough?), where in October 1668 a foundation was surveyed for Lord Craven. (fn. 25)

11-12

These properties probably occupied the site of the great messuage once inhabited by Hugh Pope, and the order of the assessment list of 1638 suggests that the site was then occupied by 5 identifiable households. The first of these was that of Mr. Southwood, whose property 'with a great wine cellar' was valued at £20 a year. Southwood's house probably lay back from the street frontage, but the wine cellar, probably identical with that where Pope's wines had been kept, may have been closer to the street and part of the same vaulted structure as that later known to have been held by Richard Payne (see 10). In 1637 John Southwood, who was evidently the same householder, was said to have made out of one house 2 very convenient and sufficient tenements, each with its own door to the street and inhabited by James Scaddinge, mercer, and Simon Plusheare, merchant, respectively. In 1638 Scaddinge's house was valued at £10 a year and Plusheare's at £9. The 2 houses perhaps occupied part of the area later identifiable as 12 and presumably incorporated rooms once occupied by Southwood himself; they may have stood over the wine cellar. The parish officers in 1637 also reported that there was a house with only one door to the street and one pair of stairs up to the first floor where there were 3 pairs of stairs to several rooms inhabited by the following: John Holmes, evidently the Mr. Holmes whose house was valued at £9 a year in 1638; Smythe and his family; William Drywood with his wife and maid, who was evidently the Mr. Drywood whose house was valued at £7 a year in 1638; Widow Hurlstone, who was Drywood's tenant; Widow Hawes, Widow Dixson, and Widow Wetnall, 'three ancient widows and parishioners'; and Magdalen Hall, milkwoman, also an ancient parishioner. The names of Holmes and Drywood are entered at the end of that part of the 1638 list which deals with Ironmonger Lane, and so it seems likely that the people listed in 1637 occupied a building identifiable from the street as 2 houses with a common entrance standing on part of the site later identifiable as 12. Since the accommodation began at first floor level or higher, it seems possible that these houses stood over a vaulted cellar which rose substantially above the street.

In or shortly before 1664 Christopher Goodfellow, esquire, was living in the messuage with yards, gardens, cellars, solars, warehouses, and chambers, which seems formerly to have been occupied by Southwood. Goodfellow's house in 1662-3 contained 9 hearths. In 1664 Anne Cooke leased the property for a term of 24 years at a fine of £120 (the rent is not known) to John Davenport, citizen and haberdasher, who probably lived there from then on. Davenport, described as a merchant, occupied a house of 7 hearths (possibly representing 10) in 1662-3, and his house in 1666 (probably part of 11-12) had 8 hearths. About 1664 the third of Anne Cooke's tenants in Ironmonger Lane was James Chadwick, mercer, who, like Davenport, still held at the time of the Great Fire. Chadwick's house, which had 4 hearths in 1666, perhaps occupied part of the site of 11-12 and may have been equivalent to the property formerly held by Holmes and Drywood. The Hearth Tax assessment of 1666 lists 5 other houses which appear to have occupied part of the site of 11-12. These were, apparently from N. to S.: a house of 4 hearths occupied by Thomas Chew, cooper; a house of 8 hearths occupied by George Cole, factor; a house of 4 hearths occupied by Richard Barker; an empty house of 5 hearths; and a house of 6 hearths occupied by Thomas Champion, victualler. (fn. 26)

After the Great Fire the property was rearranged and John Davenport undertook the rebuilding of the messuage he had occupied and parts of those adjoining. This new site, identified here as 11 and defined in a foundation survey made for Davenport in April 1668, probably had a wider frontage to Ironmonger Lane than Davenport's house before the Fire. Ogilby and Morgan's map of 1676 and an 18th-century plan of the house show that this new frontage, 19 ft. (5.79 m.) wide was occupied by a courtyard, at the back of which the new house was erected. The greater part of Davenport's property, comprising yards and warehouses, lay to the rear and measured about 65 ft. (19.81 m.) from N. to S. Davenport surrendered his old lease to Anne Cooke and in June 1668 in consideration of his expenditure on rebuilding was granted a new one for a term of 61 years at a peppercorn rent for the first 1 1/4 years and £17 p.a. thereafter. This lease concerned the toft where his former messuage had been and the ground where the cellar and staircase in the occupation of James Chadwick had stood, with all cellars, solars, rooms, yards, and gardens pertaining, together with one other cellar formerly occupied by Richard Browne, silkman (cf. 10). Anne Cooke's grandson, John Hough, was party to this lease and ratified it in December 1669. (fn. 27)

To the S. of the courtyard in front of Davenport's new house and between the main part of his property and the street was an area identified here as 12. A part of this area may have been covered by a lease which John Hough granted to Davenport in November 1669 for a term of 60 years at rents of a peppercorn for the first quarter and £8 a year thereafter. The property leased consisted of a messuage recently erected by Davenport, a toft where a messuage lately occupied by James Chadwick, mercer, had stood, and as much of the vault as had been under Chadwick's messuage; the whole parcel of ground measured 25 1/2 ft. (7.77 m.) N./S. and 27 1/2 ft. (8.38 m.) E./W. and may have represented the site of one of the 2 houses which had been erected on the site of 12 by 1676. (fn. 28)